Features

Perspective: Kevin Mitchell

Kevin Mitchell
President
Kevlar Ent.
NYC


Job History
My very first job was a Brockton Enterprise paper route in Brockton MA.

After that, I worked at Ocean Spray, on an assembly line. The cranberries would go into a boiler to be made into concentrate and I would have to pick out all the sticks and foreign objects that were still in the batch prior to them getting cooked.

In high school, I worked at Anderson Hay and Grain loading trucks. I'd load bales of hay and 100 pound bags of cow and horse feed.

At University of Massachusetts Amherst, my first gig was doing overnights at WMUA. I was the Third World Affairs director, the minority rep for the station that would advocate for minority issues.

I worked my way up at the radio station, got a prime time slot doing Saturdays nights from 9-12am. I also DJed campus gigs, frat parties and social organization events.

In '89, I went after the Program Director position at the station. It was predominantly a white station that programmed rock, polka, blues, and jazz with certain urban programming blocks totaling 16-18 hours per week. No person of color had ever held the PD position at the stations during its 50 years of existence. If I won, people were afraid that I'd flip WMUA into a hip hop station and not respect any of the other music genres. So I had to campaign really hard and finally the board voted me in.

That WMUA PD position opened up a lot of avenues. I attended conventions like the CMJ, Black College Radio Convention in Atlanta. I met Chris Washington of Atlantic there. I also met Simon Ajose of CBS Records.

At the time, I didn't aspire to be in the Music Industry, it was more of a job to me that I really loved. Simon talked to me about being a college rep. I never really knew that the program existed. Simon told me what it entailed, who to contact so when I got back to MA, I called the New England branch and the NY branch, and CBS Records Boston rep Charlie Walk who's currently Senior VP of Columbia Records. Charlie schooled me on the whole New England branch system, what the job entailed, and the qualifications for the job.

The gig was primarily an Alternative Rock promotion job. It had nothing to do with Urban. I interviewed in New York and Lexington MA and I was hired. That was my first industry job.

I still did the PD thing and my college rep job consisted of pushing Big Audio Dynamite, Pearl Jam, and Spin Doctors. On the side, I contacted some CBS product managers handling rap acts and told them I was the New England college rep and asked to promote their artist in my market.

At the time, Def Jam was distributed by CBS. They were the hottest label on the planet so I was able to work 3rd Bass, Public Enemy, Slick Rick, LL projects in my area. I got a lot of recognition from the Urban CBS staff like: college rep Ashley Fox, now A&R at Interscope, Anthony Ellis, Sales at Universal, Debra Dorsey, a regional at Atlantic, people that I've known for 16-17 years.

Since I was prioritizing my work over my school, I was on the 5 year plan to finish. My senior year, I wanted to take my whole situation to another level. Part of it was fear of graduating even though I had a job that I was having so much fun doing, making money, and the other part was realizing that I had to push myself. So I applied for an international exchange, was accepted, and placed at Richmond College in London. In '91, when CBS turned into Sony, I flew out on MLK Day, also the day The Gulf War started.

My overseas gig was going to be with Sony Music UK but that turned into a bust because all they wanted me to do was open up fan mail, kiss peoples' ass, and get coffee. I didn't really want to come to London all the way from MA and work for 6 months kissing British ass. Luckily, I had made a good connection with Bobbito Garcia, the promotions person at Def Jam, as a CBS college rep. I called him out of frustration, and he hooked me up with Mike Baksch, the International Def Jam rep. Mike, unfortunately died in 9/11, but in '91, he connected me to the Def Jam London office in Shepperds Bush and got me an internship there.

But they didn't really know how to take me. I was 21, and wanted to work for free. That was really foreign in Europe where kids finish high school at 16 and go to work or attend college and are done by 20. The guy I talked to about the internship could not understand why I would want to work for free. He was very wary of me and never gave me too much love. But the other people in the office really embraced me, helped me and let me do stuff.

They taught me the whole international touring and marketing scene, how the labels work outside of the US. London pretty much handles the rest of the world like Europe and Asia. They gave me a real nice background on the whole international music scene which was really foreign to me and a lot of my colleagues. I worked my way in and it was great. The only thing that was unfortunate was that a lot of American acts didn't tour over there because the war was going on. There was a lot of fear. Ice Cube and LL eventually ended up going to London and I saw some really good show and I got to travel Europe. And I made some really good contacts that I still have today.

I came back in May '91 and I didn't want to go back to school and go backwards. So I called Bobbito again and asked if he could get me an internship at Def Jam in New York. They only hired two interns a year and that was Barry Wade and Myorr Janha. Myorr is now a VP of Marketing for Phat Farm and Barry is a senior VP at Courvoisier. Bob said all the internship positions were filled. I could slide you in here or there but there are no stipends available. I just went for it anyway. I bought a car from my brother for $200, didn't register it, slapped on my license plate from my previous broken down car, put in all my stuff, and drove to New York. The car doors wouldn't lock, I didn't have a place to stay, but you know what, I'm going there and grind it out. I came to Def Jam. They weren't paying me. I worked in the promotions department under Wes Johnson for 10 hours a day. I did that for a month and it got really brutal. I'd go over the bridge to 24 hour Pathmark, park by the entrance, and sleep in my car so that no one would jack me. I'd shower at YMCAs.

One morning when I was coming to work over the GW Bridge, the car broke down. I got out and tried to fix it, cars were flying by me, and it was a really terrifying experience. The car just would not start. Finally a big ass tow truck comes and the driver tells me to get back in my car and steer while he pushed me across the bridge into Harlem. After getting the car off the bridge, I pulled over, took the license plate off and left it on 178th and St. Nicholas since it wasn't registered to me. I jumped on the A train downtown. When I got to work, my boss screamed on me for being late so I throw the license plate on his desk and explained what happened. He didn't give a shit and told me to get back to work. That threw me off. I felt that there was not much loyalty there. Bobby was looking out but everyone else was like whatever and not checking. I was also out of money so I needed to make a move.

Luckily, I heard two people arguing. This was at 298 Elizabeth and Def Jam and Rush Management shared the same space. The office was a like a three family apartment so you could hear people talking from other parts of the space. Rick Rubin had the top floor and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floors were all offices. I was on the 3rd floor in the promotion department and I hear a guy and lady yelling at each other. And then this Israeli accent yelled "Get the fuck out of my office!" I look down and see this black girl flipping the guy off, who happened to by Lyor. He goes around the building, pissed off, slamming shit. Come to find out that he pissed his assistant off, so she curses him out and quits.

I realize this is my opportunity. But I don't really know this guy and I needed to find some way to get his attention. So I wrote him a proposal. At the time, we had Nice N Smooth, Downtown Science, 3rd Bass, and I pitched doing a promotional tour with all these groups, consolidating budgets, and taking them on the road to pump it in the Northeast. I give it to my boss in the promotion department, gave it to Bobbito, and went downstairs and put it in Lyor's in box. He looked at me kinda strange like who are you. I just said this is for you and walked out. As soon as I turned around, he picked it up and started reading it. He stopped me and asked who I was.

I told him I interned upstairs and figured now's the time to pull my cards out and told him that I just returned from your London office. He was shocked. I filled him in on the mismanagement that was going on at that satellite office. The guy running the place managed Technotronics, Derrick B, Silver Bullet, a lot of hot British acts that didn't really mean shit to anybody in the states. So the guy was pimping out the Def Jam/Rush name for his own benefit and not doing shit with the office. Stuff was falling apart. Lyor sat there and listened to me for a half hour and then said that I was going to work for him now.

I told him I would but I was about to go home because I wasn't making any money. I shook his hand, told him it was really nice meeting him and maybe I could see him in the future some time. He was taken aback that I was leaving. I couldn't intern for Lyor, still not making any money and be dead. Lyor said that he would pay me out of his own pocket and I became his and Big D's, another guy running Rush, assistant. From there, I just made myself valuable. Every time he was on the phone, I'd take notes. I basically reorganized his whole office, spending 12-14 hours getting everything straight. And he loved me. I worked my way in.

At the end of August, I still had another year of school to finish and Lyor encouraged me to stay and work but my parents wouldn't understand if I didn't go back and get my degree. So Lyor bought me a fax machine, kept me on the payroll and let me work out of my apartment at school for the whole year. So I worked the Rush Management and RAL stuff in the New England area. I also had my Sony College Rep position. I had to give up the DJing because of all the stuff I was doing, and almost flunked out of school.

After graduation, Lyor found a position for me as a regional. First it was going to be Dallas but then our national promotion person took a position at Warner Bros. and they moved the Mid Atlantic rep to New York to be national and I got the Mid Atlantic Promotions Manager Position.

That kinda job was really what a lot of old heads had. It was a whole lot of responsibility. I was in charge of everything that had to do with the market, radio, retail. At the time BET was there so I handled that. This is one of the prime markets in America (Baltimore, DC, Richmond, Norfolk, and Virginia Beach). Here I am coming out of college and now I'm in charge of Def Jam in all those regions. That was the best thing that could have ever happened to me but some people in the company were really upset that I got that gig off the top.

The senior VP and the national basically had their own idea of who was going to take that job. When the New York office put me there, it caused a lot of friction so instead of getting trained, I was dropped in the market, like "Survivor," and had to fend for myself. Even though I had some experience, I had no idea what a regional did. I didn't even know where to start. So I basically had to keep falling on my face, getting embarrassed at the company. Luckily, I had a few people at other labels that felt bad for me and told me what to do, like going to music days, closing markets, this and that. Once I learned what I had to do, it was done. All my stations were locked down. Any record that came through, every station was playing it. I had the Hits Squad Tour, the Onyx tour, the Dre tour. Every big tour came through my market.

I was lucky to be there when Def Jam was resurging with Redman, Boss, and Onyx. Def Jam had just come out of that RAL bullshit, getting rid of all this crap that was on the label. I came at the right time and I was able to break all those groups in my market. That was my way of overcoming all the obstacles.

Since I got so nice with it, Bobbito, who wanted to leave the company, recommended me for his job. It was pretty prestigious to replace someone like Bob. When you think rap promotions, you think Bob, maybe Sincere Thompson, Harry Fobbs. For me to be pegged to fill his shoes was one of the biggest honors I've ever achieved. Bob was burnt out at the time. He's DJing now. He wasn't feeling a lot of records so he got me promoted back to New York.

I did that for awhile but there still was a lot of bullshit at the company. A lot of sabotaging. A lot of undermining, backstabbing. I felt like Def Jam was the Harvard of Hip Hop but I had to graduate in order to really be a man and walk my own dogs.

So I decided to venture out and luckily, Derreck Jackson at Rush Producers Management was shopping a group called The Roots. There was a big bidding war with The Roots and Jackson decided to do a deal with Geffen but they didn't know what the hell they were doing and asked if I'd like to go over there and help set up their Rap Department. I met with Wendy Goldstein and things worked out well. I gave them some proposals and they agreed and I left Def Jam for Geffen.

It was a sweet situation because I didn't have to work exclusively for Geffen. I was an independent contractor that was hired to work out of the office. I had a budget for street teams, expenses, the whole nine. I brought Solomon Payne, Eric Beasley, and Big D in to help me out. We worked The Roots, Gza. They hired Marvyn Mack in the West Coast and we all broke some records. But Geffen was never fully committed to having a rap department. We had fun while it lasted. I saw the collapse coming so I started doing management. I jumped ship before it went under and managed Easy Moe B and Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz.

After Geffen, I did the management thing and consulted on the side. At the time, I met Shaquille O'Neal. He wanted help setting up his label, Twism. Me and Frank Edwards, RIP, helped Shaq do his deal at Interscope. I signed Peter Gunz over there. We had 1 Accord signed over there that featured Jermaine, an amazing talent, who's on Alicia Keys' "Diary." He was signed to Rodney Jerkins at the time and we signed him to Twism.

It was a good situation but Shaq was having problems with his agent who was undermining things. At that time, Tariq and Pete had recorded "Deja Vu." We first shopped it to all the labels and everyone passed so we went out and promoted it.

Tariq was signed to Interscope as part of The Firm. He was one of the original members of The Firm but we had a lot of contractual differences with people organizing that project so Tariq was omitted from the recording process. He was stuck on Interscope as a soloist. Peter was signed to Interscope through Twism.

We put out "Deja Vu" as a promotional tool to get awareness for the two guys for their upcoming projects. Tariq was part of Money Boss Players. Everyone we shopped the record to didn't want to play ball. They thought it was a regional thing that wouldn't leave the Bronx. I ended up pressing it myself and putting it out on the streets on the independent side. The record took off, there was a bidding war and we did a huge deal with Sony.

I stepped off the Shaq thing and started Codeine Records. We were #1 on the Rap Charts for 10 weeks. "Deja Vu" hit Top 10 on the Top 200. The record sold 1.4 million copies and was the Billboard #1 record for 1998 on the Rap Singles Chart. But the guys had a lot of problems finishing the album, creative differences, so by the time the full record came out a year and a half later; their window of opportunity had closed. Add to that our A&R, product manager, and the head of Black Music were all fired. We got caught up in the major label shuffle so the group's album wasn't as successful.

I got really discouraged with the label thing. I abandoned that and decided to just stick to management. And I got caught up in the Internet wave in 2000. I set up some domain names and had some really good ideas and was in the process of dealing with UBO and other venture capitalists. I followed that whole wave until it all went bust. After that, I took some time off to reflect on life and what I was going to do. I felt music was my passion and I couldn't really let it go.

So James Lopez from Atlantic introduced me to Nappy Roots, a group that was signed to the label for four years. They had a whole lot of potential, a great album, and they needed some guidance. I flew down to Atlanta to see their show and meet with the group. They seemed like some really decent guys so I decided to manage them. They sold 1.3 million on the first album. They were the #1 selling debut rap group of 2002.

We renegotiated our deal. I continued managing them and returned to consulting. I did some song placements on movie soundtracks like Training Day, South Park, and Drumline. I started a management and consulting company called Kevlar Ent. I worked with T Bone Burnett and the Cohen Brothers on Lady Killers, a Tom Hanks movie. I also worked on The Cookout. Now I'm re-launching the consulting service through an umbrella company called Talk Hip Hop, which is a combination online magazine and resource site to assist people in executing their projects.

What are you currently working on? Your day-to-day responsibilities?

Currently, I'm working with Big Mike, Kamakazi, Bobby Creekwater, Agallah, and consulting Keno who works with Royce The 5'9. I'm also working with producer Knotz and his manager Darryl, three NBA players who are starting record labels, Big Doe and Little Brother, and 10 different up-n-coming producers. I provide career direction, everything from artist development to A&Ring their projects, marketing, the full gamut. I manage production companies and labels.

What inspires/motivates you?

I want to make a change in the industry. It's like a cesspool right now. There's a lot of bad people and bullshit going on. People that don't deserve it are getting deals. People that don't deserve certain jobs are there. It's a lot of wackness. I just really want to restore good music, value, and credibility to the game. Everyone's game has holes in it. I really want to bring, if I could, the music and creativity back to the forefront.

My biggest inspiration is success, not for me, but the people that I work with. I like getting people for A to Z. There are so many people that are underprivileged in this game as far as knowledge, market share, controlling their resources. I want to provide a balance, if I could. And the area that's lacking the most is the music business, the business of music. People ignore that. I see producers and artist get raped.

Everyday, I talk to a new producer or artist that went through the same stuff, getting jerked or somebody stole their publishing, took their credit, and didn’t pay them. So I'm hoping to make a change.

I almost feel like I'm in the wrong business because there are not a whole lot of good people who have values and integrity. I want to maintain that. It's not about being rich and successful. It's about leaving my mark on the people that I helped get into the game or acts that I've helped to develop. I'm not the guy that wants the burn. I'm the guy that comes in the backdoor, with a hat on, no jewels, that's stands by the DJ just so I can hear the music. I don't want to come in the front door with bodyguards, cameras, and broads. I'm the exact opposite. I don't really care for any of that stuff. I'm a crusader or missionary, for lack of a better term, in a foreign land.

What are your biggest challenges or the downsides of what you do?

The biggest challenge is to make an impact that's going to change the current system. The system in place now is very strong, very structured. It takes a lot to go against the grain and make changes. You have the majors, certain label heads, and lawyers controlling the whole business. To break that whole cycle is very difficult until an independent scene emerges that has enough of a power base to really have an impact.

The challenge and difficulty is to break that cycle and help minorities because they suffer the most with regards to equity and owning those proprietary rights and controlling intellectual properties. The way the labels are downsizing, the deals are worse now than those in the '60s.

Labels are looking to tap into touring, merchandise, and other different revenue streams to support all the bullshit that they've been doing like overspending and giving these big producers millions and millions of dollars and they are not delivering acts. They say downloading is affecting the industry. I disagree. It's really all the bad deals and the execs blowing money, over-billing people, kickbacks and stuff like that. Breaking that whole cycle is the challenge and the drawback.

How do you balance your personal and professional life, especially in this business where you have to play dirty? Doesn't that conflict with your personal ethics and your desire to clean everything up?

I shot straight off the top. I tell people what it is, where I'm coming from, and what to foresee down the road. That's something a majority of people never do. I'm very clear when I deal with any project or new individual what the situation is. I put my cards on the table because I don't ever want to be in a situation where somebody comes back saying "you never told me this" or "you robbed me" and want to kill me.

I go against the grain. I do things that managers never did. I give people things that I should have never given them. Like I said, I'm probably in the wrong business because I've given away millions and millions of ideas, hook ups, and connections. I've put people on that are millionaires. Some look back and some haven't. It really doesn't matter to me because at the end of the day, I know I had an impact on somebody's life in some part of the industry.

And back to balance, I try to put God and family first so that I don't succumb to all the ignorances that exist in the industry. The industry can really pull you under and make you a bad person. I'm not from New York, I'm from Massachusetts, so my values are different. In New York, it's a dog eat dog, aggressive mentality. I had to adjust my personality to adapt to it. But deep down inside, I still maintain that same integrity and hubris. At the end of the day, I know that this whole thing is a lot bigger than me so I'm not trying to be bigger than the game. I try to make my influence and try to live happily ever after.

What career achievement are you most proud of?

It was "Deja Vu." Pressing up vinyl, coming out of my house, with nobody believing in me and taking that record to #1 in the world on the rap side is one of my biggest accomplishments. Even though I only scratched the surface, in terms of my potential, because there were a lot of other conditions that prevented it from going the distance.

It was against all odds. The biggest adversity I ever faced and I was able to overcome it. At the time, Bad Boy put out a record with the same track featuring Mase, the Lox, and Puffy was the hottest thing on the planet. My record went head to head with theirs. They had millions of dollars, jewels, touring, videos, and everybody in the world's ear. And I had vinyl out of the crib in Jersey City NJ and a couple of my dudes helping me to push it. We were able to overcome, get the record out there, and bring it to the masses.

What was your biggest personal/career mistake and what did you learn from the experience?

My biggest career mistake was not handling my business. I don't want to name the situation but I lost a ton of money in a deal because I did it on a handshake. I trusted somebody and thought that because I brought a lot of money to the situation, that these people would feel rewarded and would never try to jerk me. There were three of us in the deal and two of us got jerked because the third person had the ability to override us. There were no contracts in place. I took somebody's word and got jerked.

Was there ever a time when you thought you might not succeed in what you're doing? Please explain.

After that internet thing went bust, I felt like I was at a crossroads in my life. I was going to computer school and I really didn't know what I wanted to do anymore. The music bug had me but didn't know where to go or what to do next.

I went through that whole awakening process. It was a year and a half where I didn't know what was up or down. My girl basically supported me and I didn't know what I was going to do. I lost sight of everything.

Guiding principles?

Integrity
Values
Loyalty
Courtesy
Fortitude
Perseverance
Work smarter, not harder.
Aim high. Shoot for the moon because even if you miss, you'll be amongst the stars.

Where you went to school?

I went to Cardinal Spellman HS in Brockton MA and then I attended University of Massachusetts Amherst. And I went to Richmond College in London.

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Ray Tamarra

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